ICTV Film Room: Trubisky's Impact on RPO

Jason Staples

11/25/2016

There's been a good bit of discussion of late about the difference between Marquise Williams and Mitch Trubisky in Carolina's running game.

Carolina's running game depends heavily on RPOs or run-pass options in which the quarterback reads the defense and either gives the ball to the running back, keeps the ball himself, or throws to a receiver. Last year, Williams kept the football as a runner on the zone-read much more often than Trubisky has in 2016, but this sequence demonstrates how much Trubisky still impacts the running game.

Take note of how the back side defenders still have to account for Trubisky on the zone read to Elijah Hood. Two plays later, Trubisky holds the football and reads the linebacker responsible for the quarterback, firing a touchdown pass rather than keeping the football. This is the beauty of an RPO based offense at its best—the quarterback doesn't have to run to keep the defense off balance. All that is needed is the _threat_ of the quarterback run and the offense stays balanced.